before I start can I have a show of
hands who speaks English here come on
come on
everyone should be or I’m gonna be
concerned because someone’s not gonna
get what I’m saying oh okay and today my
TED talk is about future language chance
mmm interesting I heard you said so
before I start my talk let me give a
brief introduction of myself I study in
shots in college like most of you I’m
right now in a or nine and the reason
why I’m so interested in this topic is
because me myself I speak three
languages I speak English French and
Chinese today I’m gonna introduce you to
two possible trends first of them being
the idea of multilingualism the second
one is about the idea of having one
lingua franca the most important
question is why should you care that’s
because it’s related to your children
and you it’s how your children will
communicate in the future as a parent
don’t you want to know how the evolution
of the communication portals of your
children and as a child don’t you want
to know how we communicate in the future
so can any you can see a map well not
Matt something on the left side of the
screen can someone answer me what is
that
hands like someone here I need an answer
okay maybe you don’t have an answer it’s
called Pangea it’s how a world looks
like 335 million years ago at that time
all the continents were connected but I
felt like people there were not
connected as we are now because of what
technology and internet computers
tablets iPhones these are all our
communication portals who can stop you
from skyping your friend even if one
like lives in chaton the other lives in
Toronto the first trend I’m going to
talk about is the idea of
multilingualism what is multilingualism
it’s either a speaker or group of
speakers that uses two or more languages
and these are the three benefits that
I’m going to talk about about
multilingualism in the next few minutes
so I’m gonna give you three
to look at this and I’m gonna move on
first of all being multilingual helps
you make friends although I don’t have
actual statistic to support this I do
have a personal story to share a few
years ago my French wasn’t that good be
honest it was bad and I went to France
of course I could speak like a basic
French or something like that and I made
a few friends because I saw a connection
between us simply just because we speak
the same language some of threads that
came long from Hong Kong didn’t make
many friends over there because they
don’t speak the same language I’m not
saying don’t get offended I’m not saying
if you don’t know their language you
can’t be friends with them I’m just
saying
knowing language would make it so much
more easier for you to communicate with
them and it lowers your language
barriers if you say I don’t care about
friends I’m just gonna be a loner this
is what you should care about because
being multilingual totally transform
your studying traveling experience
according to statistic in 1975 zero
point eight million people traveled a
study abroad and in 2009 three point
seven million people traveled at study
abroad we can see that there’s a 12%
increase and this number is still
increasing if you want to study abroad
it’s so important no let’s say it’s
vital to learn that language because if
you don’t know the language how are you
gonna communicate with people there and
the professors and your friends now if
you say I don’t care because I’m not
gonna study abroad you can still benefit
from knowing a language because
according to statistics three billion
people’s travel annually that’s 44
percent of the world’s population people
usually travel for two purposes first
they go therefore as a tourist or second
decoder for working purposes if you’re a
tourist knowing language prevents you
from holding Google Translate walking
around getting lost and being
embarrassed now if you go there for work
then you should totally learn the
language because if you go there
constantly not only it prevents you from
getting embarrassed it also allows you
to better communicate with people there
you can make better traits now thirdly
and most importantly being multilingual
actually increases your chance of
getting employed according to the Bureau
of Labor Statistics there is a 42% an
employment of interpreters and
translators or you can be a language
teacher or a tour guide I’m not saying
that if you be if you’re not
multilingual you’re gonna not be
successful in life that’s not true
I’m just saying imagine this if you
don’t know a language these four jobs
will no longer be available for you but
if you are a multilingual you can keep
your choices open oh well if you say I
already have my life goal and my life’s
job so I’m just gonna ignore this
you can still benefit from knowing a
different language basic according to
research your salary can differentiate
from 5% to 20% more if you know a
different language and according to
economists you have a big percentage
increase in your salary annually now I
think the reason why this is a
predictable trend it’s because a lot of
you people realize the benefits
multilingualism brings and that’s why
everyone’s learning a different language
let’s be honest can someone tell me that
can anyone tell me but can I have a show
of hands who knows more than one
language I assume a lot of people the
second trend I’m gonna talk about is the
idea of lingual having one language de
lingua franca and these are the three
possible candidates now I’m calm I’m
going to talk about I’m gonna give you
three seconds to look at this to have a
brief idea and then we’re gonna move on
English we can all agree that English is
really strong candidate for lingua
franca because as we all know many
people speak English to be exact how
many 1.75 billion that’s 25 percent of
the world’s population out of 195
countries 84 of them are English
speaking countries and also education
many schools in Hong Kong worldwide
teaches English and this refers to more
developed countries let’s ignore the
life developed countries for now what
about the left over 3% you don’t have to
care about it let’s move on I’m just
joking you do have to care about it
but it’s not really that related to you
because the reason why they’re not
teaching teaching English it’s because
the students there are not capable for
learning it so these three percents only
refer to schools that take care of
disabled students or students that can
are not capable of learning such
advanced language linguistic skills now
if you think the statistic I’ve provided
like you can just totally not that you
cannot interact with it then here is
something we can see every day
news stories and one of here here’s one
example the Volkswagen Group switches
their official language to English fix
wagon is the German car company but they
switch their official language to
English because they make trades all
around the world and they want better
communication between their employers
and employees and we can see that
English is so common that for the
benefits of their companies they have to
switch their language talking of English
I would like to talk about from the
relationship between a country’s global
status and its language as we all know
USA and Britain are really strong
countries and I think one of the reason
why English is so popular around the
world it’s because of USA in Britain
first of all Britain and USA has a
really strong political political or
economical status in the world their
languages are used more often obviously
for trays and anything anything like
that
English opens an economic and academic
door to a lot of things because many
technologies and newfound discoveries
are named in English and most
importantly because the two countries
has such strong status that’s why a lot
of people respect them the second type
of language is I’m talk I’m going to
talk about might be a little bit weird
for you because you might not have
thought about it before but the most
obvious one we can see now it’s Chinese
according to research 1.3 billion people
speaks Chinese although Chinese is not
like English that’s used all around the
world that’s not true but still 1.3
billion people speak Chinese the economy
has grew really quickly for China it has
the fastest economy growing rate with an
average of 9% here’s the list of
countries by projected gtp China’s
ranked second right after United States
and we can see that a lot of foreigners
are starting to learn Chinese they’re
really willing to learn Chinese first of
all because it’s a nice culture but
second of all because the Chinese market
is so huge and I realize I believe that
you all realized that and that’s why a
lot of people are trying to learn this
really hard language the third category
I’m going to talk about is a made up
unified language now you might think
that that’s not possible you can’t make
up in language but it is and there were
past examples one of them being
Esperanto now you might not be familiar
with Esperanto and Esperanto is a bit of
English bitter Dutch bit of Spanish and
it was in 9 in 1887 7 1/2 introduces
simple easily learned language
the purpose was to erase communication
barriers between people and to provide a
politically neutral culturally free
standard language that sound great but
there were problems too many Asians
Esperanto was like English no difference
because they’re both really hard to
Asians so many people
back then because the Britain had really
strong Empire so most people really knew
English so they would rather stay with
English than to learn Esperanto during
the 1970s and in 1980s many people got
really excited for the Esperanto I mean
it’s a pretty cool idea but many people
realize that’s not possible
and even if in afterwards Esperanto was
introduced not many people actually
cared about it and he has not involved
evolved into a dominant worldwide
language so why did aspirin do not
become a worldwide language I think the
most important point it’s because
cultural differences and barriers many
people treat their language as a form of
art and they think that their language
should be the lingua franca not that one
and most importantly a language exists
for a certain purpose you might think um
I think that it exists for us to
distinguish ourselves and to express our
culture differences for example you
might think French people are really
elegant and French is really elegant or
you might think Spanish sounds really
passionate because Spanish people are
really passionate and I think those
people think that Esperanto is not
enough for them to express their
cultural differences and their
disparities because it’s not their
language and to conclude I would like to
say that I’ve mentioned two ideas an
idea of multilingualism and the idea of
lingua franca and I cannot tell you
which one’s going to be more predictable
in the future now it might seem my top
might seem pointless because at the end
of the day I actually didn’t come up
with an conclusion but I would like to
leave you with two questions which
trends do you think are going to be more
predictable in the future and what are
your views on a trend or maybe you have
a different view in your mind now the
whole point of my talk is to trigger
your mind and think about this
because I realize a lot of people don’t
really think about this side of the
world and at the end of the day an
overview image of our present might be a
hint of how our future looks like
[Applause]
chicken of all I need to thank everyone
that spoke here and everyone that helped
and third of all on you thank you for
listening
[Applause]
hands who speaks English here come on
come on
everyone should be or I’m gonna be
concerned because someone’s not gonna
get what I’m saying oh okay and today my
TED talk is about future language chance
mmm interesting I heard you said so
before I start my talk let me give a
brief introduction of myself I study in
shots in college like most of you I’m
right now in a or nine and the reason
why I’m so interested in this topic is
because me myself I speak three
languages I speak English French and
Chinese today I’m gonna introduce you to
two possible trends first of them being
the idea of multilingualism the second
one is about the idea of having one
lingua franca the most important
question is why should you care that’s
because it’s related to your children
and you it’s how your children will
communicate in the future as a parent
don’t you want to know how the evolution
of the communication portals of your
children and as a child don’t you want
to know how we communicate in the future
so can any you can see a map well not
Matt something on the left side of the
screen can someone answer me what is
that
hands like someone here I need an answer
okay maybe you don’t have an answer it’s
called Pangea it’s how a world looks
like 335 million years ago at that time
all the continents were connected but I
felt like people there were not
connected as we are now because of what
technology and internet computers
tablets iPhones these are all our
communication portals who can stop you
from skyping your friend even if one
like lives in chaton the other lives in
Toronto the first trend I’m going to
talk about is the idea of
multilingualism what is multilingualism
it’s either a speaker or group of
speakers that uses two or more languages
and these are the three benefits that
I’m going to talk about about
multilingualism in the next few minutes
so I’m gonna give you three
to look at this and I’m gonna move on
first of all being multilingual helps
you make friends although I don’t have
actual statistic to support this I do
have a personal story to share a few
years ago my French wasn’t that good be
honest it was bad and I went to France
of course I could speak like a basic
French or something like that and I made
a few friends because I saw a connection
between us simply just because we speak
the same language some of threads that
came long from Hong Kong didn’t make
many friends over there because they
don’t speak the same language I’m not
saying don’t get offended I’m not saying
if you don’t know their language you
can’t be friends with them I’m just
saying
knowing language would make it so much
more easier for you to communicate with
them and it lowers your language
barriers if you say I don’t care about
friends I’m just gonna be a loner this
is what you should care about because
being multilingual totally transform
your studying traveling experience
according to statistic in 1975 zero
point eight million people traveled a
study abroad and in 2009 three point
seven million people traveled at study
abroad we can see that there’s a 12%
increase and this number is still
increasing if you want to study abroad
it’s so important no let’s say it’s
vital to learn that language because if
you don’t know the language how are you
gonna communicate with people there and
the professors and your friends now if
you say I don’t care because I’m not
gonna study abroad you can still benefit
from knowing a language because
according to statistics three billion
people’s travel annually that’s 44
percent of the world’s population people
usually travel for two purposes first
they go therefore as a tourist or second
decoder for working purposes if you’re a
tourist knowing language prevents you
from holding Google Translate walking
around getting lost and being
embarrassed now if you go there for work
then you should totally learn the
language because if you go there
constantly not only it prevents you from
getting embarrassed it also allows you
to better communicate with people there
you can make better traits now thirdly
and most importantly being multilingual
actually increases your chance of
getting employed according to the Bureau
of Labor Statistics there is a 42% an
employment of interpreters and
translators or you can be a language
teacher or a tour guide I’m not saying
that if you be if you’re not
multilingual you’re gonna not be
successful in life that’s not true
I’m just saying imagine this if you
don’t know a language these four jobs
will no longer be available for you but
if you are a multilingual you can keep
your choices open oh well if you say I
already have my life goal and my life’s
job so I’m just gonna ignore this
you can still benefit from knowing a
different language basic according to
research your salary can differentiate
from 5% to 20% more if you know a
different language and according to
economists you have a big percentage
increase in your salary annually now I
think the reason why this is a
predictable trend it’s because a lot of
you people realize the benefits
multilingualism brings and that’s why
everyone’s learning a different language
let’s be honest can someone tell me that
can anyone tell me but can I have a show
of hands who knows more than one
language I assume a lot of people the
second trend I’m gonna talk about is the
idea of lingual having one language de
lingua franca and these are the three
possible candidates now I’m calm I’m
going to talk about I’m gonna give you
three seconds to look at this to have a
brief idea and then we’re gonna move on
English we can all agree that English is
really strong candidate for lingua
franca because as we all know many
people speak English to be exact how
many 1.75 billion that’s 25 percent of
the world’s population out of 195
countries 84 of them are English
speaking countries and also education
many schools in Hong Kong worldwide
teaches English and this refers to more
developed countries let’s ignore the
life developed countries for now what
about the left over 3% you don’t have to
care about it let’s move on I’m just
joking you do have to care about it
but it’s not really that related to you
because the reason why they’re not
teaching teaching English it’s because
the students there are not capable for
learning it so these three percents only
refer to schools that take care of
disabled students or students that can
are not capable of learning such
advanced language linguistic skills now
if you think the statistic I’ve provided
like you can just totally not that you
cannot interact with it then here is
something we can see every day
news stories and one of here here’s one
example the Volkswagen Group switches
their official language to English fix
wagon is the German car company but they
switch their official language to
English because they make trades all
around the world and they want better
communication between their employers
and employees and we can see that
English is so common that for the
benefits of their companies they have to
switch their language talking of English
I would like to talk about from the
relationship between a country’s global
status and its language as we all know
USA and Britain are really strong
countries and I think one of the reason
why English is so popular around the
world it’s because of USA in Britain
first of all Britain and USA has a
really strong political political or
economical status in the world their
languages are used more often obviously
for trays and anything anything like
that
English opens an economic and academic
door to a lot of things because many
technologies and newfound discoveries
are named in English and most
importantly because the two countries
has such strong status that’s why a lot
of people respect them the second type
of language is I’m talk I’m going to
talk about might be a little bit weird
for you because you might not have
thought about it before but the most
obvious one we can see now it’s Chinese
according to research 1.3 billion people
speaks Chinese although Chinese is not
like English that’s used all around the
world that’s not true but still 1.3
billion people speak Chinese the economy
has grew really quickly for China it has
the fastest economy growing rate with an
average of 9% here’s the list of
countries by projected gtp China’s
ranked second right after United States
and we can see that a lot of foreigners
are starting to learn Chinese they’re
really willing to learn Chinese first of
all because it’s a nice culture but
second of all because the Chinese market
is so huge and I realize I believe that
you all realized that and that’s why a
lot of people are trying to learn this
really hard language the third category
I’m going to talk about is a made up
unified language now you might think
that that’s not possible you can’t make
up in language but it is and there were
past examples one of them being
Esperanto now you might not be familiar
with Esperanto and Esperanto is a bit of
English bitter Dutch bit of Spanish and
it was in 9 in 1887 7 1/2 introduces
simple easily learned language
the purpose was to erase communication
barriers between people and to provide a
politically neutral culturally free
standard language that sound great but
there were problems too many Asians
Esperanto was like English no difference
because they’re both really hard to
Asians so many people
back then because the Britain had really
strong Empire so most people really knew
English so they would rather stay with
English than to learn Esperanto during
the 1970s and in 1980s many people got
really excited for the Esperanto I mean
it’s a pretty cool idea but many people
realize that’s not possible
and even if in afterwards Esperanto was
introduced not many people actually
cared about it and he has not involved
evolved into a dominant worldwide
language so why did aspirin do not
become a worldwide language I think the
most important point it’s because
cultural differences and barriers many
people treat their language as a form of
art and they think that their language
should be the lingua franca not that one
and most importantly a language exists
for a certain purpose you might think um
I think that it exists for us to
distinguish ourselves and to express our
culture differences for example you
might think French people are really
elegant and French is really elegant or
you might think Spanish sounds really
passionate because Spanish people are
really passionate and I think those
people think that Esperanto is not
enough for them to express their
cultural differences and their
disparities because it’s not their
language and to conclude I would like to
say that I’ve mentioned two ideas an
idea of multilingualism and the idea of
lingua franca and I cannot tell you
which one’s going to be more predictable
in the future now it might seem my top
might seem pointless because at the end
of the day I actually didn’t come up
with an conclusion but I would like to
leave you with two questions which
trends do you think are going to be more
predictable in the future and what are
your views on a trend or maybe you have
a different view in your mind now the
whole point of my talk is to trigger
your mind and think about this
because I realize a lot of people don’t
really think about this side of the
world and at the end of the day an
overview image of our present might be a
hint of how our future looks like
[Applause]
chicken of all I need to thank everyone
that spoke here and everyone that helped
and third of all on you thank you for
listening
[Applause]
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